It’s
been said for a long time now that Netflix is leading the future of
entertainment. Many people saw it years
ago when they were taking business from Blockbuster Entertainment and other
video stores, and amazingly, they did nothing to counter this. Despite the fact that Netflix’s model was
working better than theirs, the heads of Blockbuster ignored these obvious
signs and continued their business as usual rather than adjusting and
evolving. This was due in large part to
ego. I know because I’ve talked with
someone who served as president for a time at Blockbuster and left because he
saw that no one would even consider changing tactics. When he pointed this out, they ignored him
and kept their ship driving right into the iceberg.
Now Netflix is continuing their
innovative efforts in competition with regular television. What’s amazing is how little these networks
have learned from Blockbuster. They
believe that, because they are the big guys on the block today, they are
destined to always be that way.
To be sure, they are adjusting in
some ways, but usually they are the wrong ways.
CBS is beginning a subscription service that will be led by their Star
Trek series in which viewers will have to pay to watch. However, viewers aren’t going to see any
reason to pay for this television service that they are getting for free with
other shows unless CBS offers something more.
Of course, they’ll have some shows that they know audiences will want on
the subscription channel, but that’s not enough.
What’s caused viewers to turn to
Netflix is that their programming has been more interesting and innovative than
network TV. Rather than following tired
formulas and using outdated methods, they have created new ways of telling
stories both artistically and technically.
Artistically, they tell stories in
unique fashions and they make sure the entire show is aired so the whole story
is there. What I mean by unique fashions
is that they do not limit their writers to specific formula patterns. On television, you have five acts broken up
by commercials. Every show has to follow
those acts, and executives will require that producers break down their scripts
into these acts to prove it. Netflix
makes no such requirement, and thus the stories are more interesting.
This is further improved by the fact that
they don’t make pilots, see how they go, then just a few episodes and see how
they go before making entire seasons.
Networks do this all the time, and it makes for very broken up
storylines. Worst yet, they will cancel
a show if it’s not doing well. This may
save them money in the short run, but it destroys trust in the viewer, who
decides not to watch the next show.
Many people will not waste their time on a
network show because that show may be cancelled next week. There’s no point in wasting the time getting
invested. But with Netflix, you know
that if you try a show out, they’ll at least get through a season, so there
will be some semblance of a story.
Basically, think of it like this. If you buy a book, would you rather get one
that the author is still writing and might not finish, or would you rather get
one that you know has been finished, and may even go on to more books?
Unless the networks
wake up, they’re going to go the way of Blockbuster.
No comments:
Post a Comment